


Lights, Camera... No Action

by astrxd



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Co-stars/Actors AU, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Drabble, F/M, Modern AU, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-28 01:13:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10061234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrxd/pseuds/astrxd
Summary: She slid her hands from both of his shoulders up his neck. The pads of her fingers tickled his cheek, and he leaned into the palm of her hand. Astrid inched forward and brushed her thumb against his skin while he pressed his forehead to hers. Their warm breath mingled together as they stared at one another.“I thought I lost you,” he whispered hoarsely.“As if it would be that easy to get rid of me,” she sincerely teased in response.He gave her a knowing smile, and she smirked back up at him. The two melted into one another, and a string of expletives raced through the blonde’s mind.





	

****She slid her hands from both of his shoulders up his neck. The pads of her fingers tickled his cheek, and he leaned into the palm of her hand. Astrid inched forward and brushed her thumb against his skin while he pressed his forehead to hers. Their warm breath mingled together as they stared at one another.

“I thought I lost you,” he whispered hoarsely.

“As if it would be that easy to get rid of me,” she sincerely teased in response.

He gave her a knowing smile, and she smirked back up at him. The two melted into one another, and a string of expletives raced through the blonde’s mind.

Then, the silence. The too lengthy pause. The inaction.

Astrid mentally punched herself for freezing up, _right before the kiss._

Abruptly, a bell shrieked in their ears, yanking them away from one another with a high pitched _briiiiiing,_ followed by a sharp exclamation of “cut!”

It was the third time they tried to film the last goddamn scene of the movie, and they  _still_ didn’t have their shit together. It was unbelievable.

“...Oookay. Hofferson, Haddock, take fifteen! We need this kiss to be an _explosion,_ but there needs to be a kiss first. _”_ The director, oddly nicknamed Tuffnut, called at them. Immediately, everybody began talking to one another and milling about, leaving Astrid gazing straight at a slightly flushed, somewhat stiff Henry Haddock. Astrid cursed the fluttering in her stomach, and damned the tingle of her blood beneath her skin.

She hated this stupid acting thing--she hated how much she _loved_ it. She hated how much she loved _pretending_ to love him _,_ so much that she was beginning to question if it was even acting anymore. While Hiccup had dropped his hands from her waist almost as soon as the director called cut, Astrid kept her hands pressed to the sides of his face. They remained like that for what seemed to be an eternity. Henry’s shoulders lifted slightly, as if he were prepared to loop his arms around her middle again.

...When they didn’t, a sigh threatened to bubble past her lips. She suppressed it instead, but _oh_ ; it would have been so _easy_ to just _kiss_ him. Why was it so difficult to _want to_ when the camera was rolling?

She patted both of his cheeks before pivoting on the heel of her foot.

“See you in fifteen, Haddock,” the blonde called over her shoulder as she made her way off the set and to the craft services table, a safe place to retreat to after another situation like that _._ The script said that _he_ had to kiss _her._ So why didn’t he? Or, alternatively, why didn’t _she_ just kiss him instead? Honestly, Astrid was just tired of the tension _._ Henry was just so, so confusing, and he was beginning to drive her up the set walls with his tentative, cautious behavior.

A shiver rippled down her spine at the use of the metaphor, and she finally, _finally_ released that sigh she was holding in as she arrived at the provisions table. Immediately, Astrid reached out and picked up the heated pitcher to pour herself a cup of coffee. As soon as finished, she skipped on the sugar and cream, sealed her cup with a top and took a hearty sip.

The bitter liquid streamed down her throat and she sighed. Again.

Her eyes snapped upwards and she looked around the room. Everybody was draped over themselves on the set, evidently tired from all of the filming that had been accomplished, but one person in particular stuck out to her…

...And, once again, her gaze locked onto impossibly forest green eyes. Stupid broad shoulders, stupid grin, stupid laugh and auburn hair. God, she had it bad; “ _not again”_ was the first thing on her mind as he soon noticed her. Unwilling to back down and look away, Astrid sipped her coffee and attempted to look as if she were staring through him as he approached her. Not much to Astrid’s surprise, Henry didn’t seem to be interested in coffee. Rather than pick something off the table, he claimed the space before her and tucked his hands into his pockets in that painfully unassuming manner of his.

“Astrid,” he began, rocking on his heels as he smiled sheepishly at her, “hey.”

She internally damned the people in charge of his wardrobe for rolling up his sleeves, and for not giving her heels to match his height.

“Hey,” she responded with a nod of acknowledgement.

“I… wanted to, ah, talk about the--the, um, last few scenes,” he began, “if that’s, y’know, okay with you and all--”

“Shh,” she hissed sharply. He may have not noticed the watchful eyes and snooping noses tuning into their conversation, but Astrid certainly did. In spite of Henry’s somewhat shocked, disheartened expression, the blonde jerked her head in the direction of the stage exit.

At least he got _that_ message.

“So, what’s up?” She continued once they were out of earshot of noset crew members. _Even on set_ , she contemplated, _everybody acts like a sleazy tabloid reporter._ At least Henry had to decency to look a little

“Uh, I just--I wanted to know about the, um--the, the--”

“Kiss,” Astrid finished for him. The two had shot an entire film with one another, did a thousand table reads and rehearsals, and _now_ he was struggling to get a sentence out to her? _Now_ they were having trouble acting out their scenes? It seemed unconventional--right off the bat, they hit off their partnership with sarcasm and sharp remarks. The fact that it was _now_ that she and her co-star were acting like angsty teenagers in high school was slightly perplexing.

Then again, maybe it was just the fact that the romance between their two characters was only now rising to its peak, or maybe it was because neither really _thought_ about the kiss until now. She always knew that it was coming, but for some reason...

“I, yeah. The kiss,” he nodded hastily, rubbing the back of his neck.

“What about it?” She queried as she finished up the last sip of her coffee. Astrid effortlessly chucked it down the hall into the recycling bin, where it successfully sank into the plastic container.

“Good shot,” Henry quipped.

“That better not be another filming pun,” she warned him with a pointed glare. The two shared a brief laugh, and some of the tension melted away into comfortable silence. Astrid cleared her throat after a moment, prompting him to continue speaking.

“Right! Right, um. So Tuff wants this to look _realistic,_ and he wants us to be _dramatic_ and… I want to make sure that you’re, well, _comfortable_ with--”

Again, she cut him off.

“Henry, we’re professional actors,” she remarked. Her confidence felt faked, and her tone held a note of unintentional sharpness, to the point where her co-star looked slightly taken aback. She quickly amended her statement. “I mean, _yeah,_ I’m comfortable. Besides, I think you’ve got enough drama in your left pinky to get the audience to receive the kiss the way Tuffnut wants them to.”

The dry laugh that Hiccup delivered was more forced than it should have been.

“Just, just making sure. It’s just, we haven’t rehearsed that scene and-and I kinda just, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t cross any lines and all,” he offered with a sheepish half smile and a shrug.

Astrid inwardly grimaced. She _had_ intentionally avoided rehearsing the kiss, in fear that something would happen. They were actors. _Professional_ actors. Everything about their relationship was strictly professional.

As much as she would have preferred otherwise.

“If you’re referencing our last take, I feel like I should remind you that _Peyton_ is the one kissing _Reagan.”_

He seemed to shrink. She wanted to pinch herself.

“Yeah--yeah, I… I know. Sorry. I just kind of… froze up.”

Everything she said was coming out all wrong _._ It irritated her to no end--what was it about Henry that made it _so_ difficult to just _act?_

She didn’t know what it was about him, but it was definitely not boding well with the Hofferson. Never before did she struggle with feelings for her on-screen love interest, let alone having to _kiss_ them. It was a simple stage kiss, too!

“Well, we can rehearse now, if you want to,” she blurted, though her voice was even and the suggestion was calm and offhanded. At least, to _her_ it was. Yay, acting.

The shock that flooded Henry’s expression was practically tangible. Astrid eyed him warily, her heart beating heavily in her chest. For a very cautious person, she really jumped the gun there. It was… exhilarating, but slightly mortifying.

“I… Sure. Sure, yeah--we, we could do that.”

_Christ._

Astrid cleared her throat and loosened up her shoulders as she took a step forward to set her hands on Henry’s cheeks again. His palms then fell gently, respectfully on her hips. She momentarily hated herself for suggesting they kissed _now,_ but at least she’d get a feeling of how it would be in front of the rolling camera.

Or, more specifically, in about five minutes.

It took a moment to get situated; based on his slightly rigid demeanor. Astrid decided that she’d have to be the one to take the initiative. Not that she minded, but...

...She hesitated to speak her line, those damned twelve words.

It felt too real _._ She’s stage kissed people before, but there was never, _never_ this much difficulty in doing so.

The blonde took a deep breath as she stared up at Henry.

“You okay?” He asked quietly, cautiously. A moment’s pause.

“Not really,” she mumbled.

“Me, either,” he confessed.

Minutes passed.

They simply stood there, gradually leaning into one another by the second. Astrid slipped her eyes shut first, and she assumed that Hiccup did the same. The blonde felt him move closer, she felt him lift a hand from her waist to tilt her chin up and towards him.

And it felt impossibly right.

Sadly, that was also the moment that Sean Jorgenson, one of the members of the cosmetics and costumes crew, burst through the stage door, and boy, did he look upset.

“ _Excuse me,”_ he fumed loudly, effectively causing Henry to jump away from Astrid. Sean stormed towards them and Henry groaned, apologetically glancing at her as the Haddock got dragged by the wrist towards the stage door. “There are _three minutes_ until action and we need to touch up your makeup, Haddock!”

“I don’t need any more powder, _Snot--_ ”

“Shut up and move, _Hiccup!_ You can snog with Astrid later _.”_

The blonde blinked blankly, before folding her arms as she watched her co-star, and her _kiss,_ literally get dragged away from her. Henry and Sean disappeared through the set doors, and Astrid shook her head and sighed.

 _Cousins._ It was always something between those two.

Astrid followed them back on set, only to watch Henry get pulled away.

“See you in two minutes,” he called after her hopefully.

“As if it would be that easy to get rid of me,” she responded coolly.

...Seconds later, she herself got yanked away to have her own makeup touched up.  
  
And again--yay. _Acting._


End file.
